VIDEO: Restoring old furniture

Slight signs of use on simple, old wooden furniture definitely have charm. A make-over is almost always worthwhile. Larger damage, such as severe worm damage, missing or spongy pieces of wood, are more difficult to remove. Find out whether revising yourself is feasible for you.

Take a look at the old piece of furniture

Clean the wooden surface by vacuuming and dusting. Investigate that furniture missing or wobbling parts. If necessary, check the function and / or ease of movement.

Examine the surface. How thick are any layers of paint? Was that wood stained dark with stain? Do you see deeply penetrated stains, possibly oily? Do you discover deep scratches, scrapes, holes?

Then place the piece in a room with normal living temperature for a few days to remove any moisture. Because if the piece of furniture has been stored poorly and damp, there is a risk that the wood will crack or its stability deteriorates.

If there are small holes, it is woodworm damage. Thoroughly vacuum any wood flour that may be present. If the animals are still active, you will find fresh wood flour in the area of ​​the holes in a few days.

Assess the condition of the furniture

After one to two weeks of storage, you can see the condition of the piece of furniture even better. Estimate the workload and draw a first summary.

Is there woodworm damage and are the animals still active? Is it worth fighting them or is the eroded area too unstable? Do heavily attacked parts even have to be replaced?

Has the wood warped in the living space? Did this develop cracks that impair the stability? Let drawers and Doors can still open and close without any problems? Does the piece of furniture suddenly wobble? Are the fittings or furniture feet loose or missing?

Restoring wooden furniture yourself

A simple layer of paint can usually be removed with the help of a simple paint stripper from the hardware store. This work requires a lot of patience. To do this, you need a suitable workplace, preferably with a water connection.

If there are several, thick layers of lacquer on the wood, this is a case for professional leaching. There the wood is sucked off in the immersion bath and then neutralized. Caution: This procedure can result in the wood being heavily roughened afterwards. Thorough ribbons is then essential.

You can get rid of woodworms in different ways. If the infestation is very light, natural methods such as heat or frost can help. However, the chemical club is more effective. Woodworm death from the hardware store can only work safely if the product is used properly. The protection of the user always has top priority.

Seal wood worm holes with wood putty or wax of the same color. Caution: If severe damage caused by eating leads to the instability of the furniture, the area that has been eaten away must be completely replaced. The more noticeable the affected area, the greater and more demanding the workload.

You only need manual skills to attach loose furniture feet, fittings or hinges. It is much more difficult to repair completely unstable furniture. Often several parts need to be removed and replaced. In the worst case, all you need to do is dismantle it into all its individual parts.

When you take a piece of furniture apart, you can see the original wood connections. You will come across connections with or without aids. Connections without additional tools are, for example, pegged or toothed. Aids include wooden dowels, screws and nails.

The older and worthless the piece of furniture, the rarer you will find original connections. Often old furniture has passed through many hands and has been repaired several times and without much expertise. The more amateurish the execution, the more work awaits you.

The goal of restoring furniture that has no antique value back to its original state rarely makes sense. In order to put the parts together in a stable and orderly manner, manual skills and a sense of aesthetics are usually sufficient. Limitation: Valuable pieces always deserve a professional restoration, preferably by a specialist.

Replacing missing or chipped veneer is very time-consuming. Without specialist knowledge, this work cannot be carried out. You also need the right material and the right tools. The same applies to the restoration of marquetry.

Furniture - condition and effort

State	expenditure	Conclusion
simple varnish layer	Use waste liquor from the hardware store, workplace with water connection	Patience and suitable space required
thick layer of varnish	a case for leaching	sanding is often necessary afterwards
very slight woodworm infestation	can often be combated with biological means, then close the holes with putty / wax	small effort
severe woodworm infestation	Use of poison necessary.	a safe job is a prerequisite
slightly unstable	repair it yourself possible	pay attention to aesthetics
very unstable, severe functional restriction	possibly. Disassembly necessary.	only for advanced users
eaten or missing parts	Replace necessary	the more extensive, the more difficult
slight scratches / stains / stain	fill, grind, bleach. Attention: The stain cannot be removed!	the deeper / more conspicuous, the more complicated; Removal not possible if the surface is stained
Veneer / inlays defective or missing parts	very demanding, special material / equipment required	have it professionally restored

Now it is probably clearer to you what kind of work you can expect and what you can trust yourself to do. Do not worry, as is well known, no master has fallen from the sky. However, it is important that fun is not neglected. If you are unsure about the real value of a piece of furniture or the actual amount of work involved, ask a professional.